1. Origin of the Invention
The invention described herein was made in the performance of work under a NASA contract, and is subject to the provisions of Public Law 96-517 (35 USC 202) in which the Contractor has elected not to retain title.
2. Technical Field
The invention relates to mobile robot vehicles and in particular to miniature unmanned robot vehicles for use in exploring rough terrains such as planetary surfaces and more specifically to a method of operating such a vehicle for surmounting obstacles in the vehicle's path.
Background of the Invention
Various types of robot vehicles useful for exploring rough terrain such as planetary surfaces are known in the art. Of particular interest to the present invention is the type of robot vehicle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,287 supported on two pairs of wheels connected to the vehicle body by respective struts, the front struts and the rear struts being independently rotatable about respective forward and rear axes intersecting the vehicle body and transverse to the direction of vehicle travel.
A critical problem in the operation of any robot vehicle in extremely rough terrain is how to climb or surmount obstacles in the vehicle's path. The technique illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,287 referenced above essentially is a crawl technique in which the forward struts reach out one-by-one at an obstacle to scale the obstacle by crawling over it, involving a fairly complex robotic control algorithm.